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eBay Feedback - Who should leave first, Buyers or Sellers?

Like most everyone here, I both buy and sell on eBay. One of the issues that I get as both is feedback. Who should leave it first, buyer or seller?

This was highlighted by a recent message I got from one of the bigger eBay sellers (below) who use automated requests for FB.

So, what are the community's thoughts? Buyer leaves first or seller? Knowing why you think that would be great too.

Dear reoddai,

Hi,

Thank you very much for your purchase.

We would really appreciate, if you've enjoyed our product and service to please leave us a positive feedback and a 5 STAR RATING in all 4 categories. Anything less than a score of 5 star is considered a negative for us.

We strive to provide a 5 STAR service would love to have the opportunity to fix any problems you might have if you are not 100% satisfied with our product or service. We reciprocate any positive feedback left for us.

Usually I don't bother to reply to these, but I decided to send this one out:

Dear WITHHELD,

Hello,

I have not yet received the card. I did not expect it to have arrived yet, so don't worry.

Since you asked about feedback, once I receive an item I order through eBay, I leave 5 star feedback for all categories as long as feedback has already been left for me. As a buyer, I think my job is done once I have paid for an item. If the seller leaves feedback after payment then I know that they are happy with my payment and have shipped the item. If the seller waits to leave FB until after they have received feedback from the buyer, I generally think that they are using policies from several years ago when sellers could leave negative FB. BAck then, I found that seller tended to wait to leave FB so that they could use it as a means for retaliation for a negative or neutral FB left by a customer. Since sellers cannot leave negative or neutral feedback anymore I don't know why they wait to leave it and I haven't yet herd a good explanation. So, if feedback has been left for me once an item has arrived, I will happily do the same. If it hasn't, then I see no reason why I should leave feedback either if the seller isn't leaving any for me. If you have a good reason for not leaving it first, please let me know. After all, I could be wrong about my reasoning.

Cheers,

- reoddai

In less than 30 minutes I get this back

Dear reoddai,

Hi Sir,

You are absolutely right. Our feedbacks are left via our account rep.

I will forward the concern to them.Regards,[PERSONAL NAME WITHHELD]

I only post this because I thought it was a nice exchange. I still won't leave FB unless I already have it once I get the item.

Definitely sellers...if payment is made within the sellers timframe, then the seller should leave FB right away. As a buyer I've held my end of the bargain (paying for the item) and therefore should get appropriate FB.

I think it makes sense that the seller should leave it first. They get paid first, they have received their part of the exchange. I agree with you that buyers should leave feedback when they get the item. Make sure everything is as described, etc.

As a side note I've noticed quite a bit lately when doing box breaks on eBay that a lot of buyers seem to be leaving feedback right away whether they got a hit or not. I could see it if they do not get a hit card in the break obviously just to thank the seller for a quick, fair break kind of thing. But I've had a number where people get a good hit. Like maybe the best hit in a tin of The Cup and they leave feedback as soon as they pay. I almost want to message them and tell them to be careful about doing it. I could definitely see a less than reputable breaker keeping that good card for themselves and then using the positive feedback left as evidence that they did everything right. Sorry for going off on a tangent.

Ill take the other side of things - I would say the buyer - as that would be the end of the transaction once the card has been recieved

Yes the buyer has sent payment, but if a card gets lost of damaged to me the transaction is not done

What if the card is damaged and the buyer is a real piece of work and has poor communication or something else, the seller has no avenue of explaining this other than in the feedback (thats why I read comments and not only look at the rating)

Also at the feedback screen as a seller there is the "Report This Buyer" option as well which may not be available if feedback is already left

Although I am not a fan of people who hold feedback "hostage" - you get the card leave feedback and I will leave mine - or send me a message saying card is received and ill leave feedback

I agree with the above that it makes sense that the seller should leave feedback first.

Since sellers cannot leave negative or neutral feedback anymore I don't know why they wait to leave it and I haven't yet herd a good explanation. I will give an opinion on this - right or wrong. I will always click into the feedback profile of the buyer and if they have received several feedbacks in the past month but have never left feedback for sellers, I will not leave feedback unless they leave it for me. If they have left feedback for sellers, than I have no problem leaving feedback for them.

I always leave feedback almost immediately after I receive payment as I am packing the cards to ship. When I buy and item I expect positive feedback after I pay or shortly afterwards. If no feedback is left I don't bother leaving feedback for the seller its a 2 way street if you don't want to leave me feedback I won't leave you any.

Once the seller receives payment, their portion of the transaction is complete. by making payment the buyer had fullfilled his side of the agreement and there is nothing remaining for which he should be judged.

I think the appropriate answer here is that eBay should throw it this terrible policy of "sellers can not leave negative feedback" and actually put people on the investigation end of things.

Who's obligated to leave feedback first? Technically, neither. Neilnijjar brings up a good point - if I sell a card and leave positive feedback because the payment was on time, I don't think I have any way of changing that if that person turns around and tries to tell me a card I claimed was "Near Mint" was less than that and that they deserve some refund. (this happened to me.) If I don't leave that feedback, I have options - few, thanks to eBay's "buyer is always right even when he's clearly lying" policy - but options nonetheless.

In reality both sides should express to each other that they are happy with their transaction and then leave their feedbacks appropriately. Unfortunately most sellers have this idea that since it's the internet they don't need to have any kind of manners and absolutely minimal contact with their customers, and buyers think they're entitled to positive feedback no matter what they do later simply because they paid for the item on time.

I have a slightly different take... when I buy/sell an individual card I feel that the seller should leave feedback first for sure.

However, I've been running box breaks now for a while and have encountered more than a handful of shady buyers. Ones that will use feedback extortion if they don't win something in a break, etc. For that reason I have my eBay settings to automatically leave positive feedback as soon as positive feedback is received. At least then I can leave positive feedback, but note that the buyer did XYZ or was a bad break participant in the comments.

It's actually a shame it's come down to this as I use to auto-generate positive feedback as soon as payment was received but having 4-5 people claim 'scam/fraud' when they don't win anything or outright message me saying they'll remove their negative feedback if I give them something led me to do it this way.